Agent Spotlight: Steven Axelrod

About: “Steven Axelrod has been an agent for over 30 years and president of his own agency for more than 25 years. Prior to agenting, he was an editor at The Literary Guild, managing editor at Harcourt Brace and a reader for a number of paperback houses. His present clients include two-time Edgar Award-winning mystery author S.J. Rozan, as well as many top women’s fiction authors, including #1 New York Times bestsellers Christine Feehan, J.R. Ward and Julia Quinn, as well as multi-New York Times Bestsellers Jayne Ann Krentz, Susan Elizabeth Phillips , Suzanne Brockmann and Catherine Anderson.” (Link)

As of this posting, Mr. Axelrod is listed on Publisher’s Marketplace as having made 8 deal in the last 12 months, 10 six-figure+ deals, and 19 overall. Recent deals include 7 women’s/romance and 1 paranormal.

I saw his response time for queries listed as 2-3 months on an agent listing site. Limited stats suggest of average of about 3 weeks with instances coming in sooner and later. His response time on requested material appears to range from days to months but is usually within a month.

What's the Buzz?

Steven Axelrod is considered a top notch agent, well known for his award-winning, bestselling mystery and women’s fiction clients and years in the business. He accepts young adult fiction according to all the databases, but I am not aware of any YA clients or sales at this time. I couldn’t find any specifics on what he might be looking for in the YA realm, but I think he’s definitely worth a query.

Please see Mr. Axelrod’s AAR page or one of the query databases above for contact and query information.

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Have any experience with this agent? See something that needs updating? Please leave a comment or e-mail me at agentspotlight(at)gmail(dot)com

Note: These agent profiles presently focus on agents who accept children's fiction. They are not interviews. Please take the time to verify anything you might use here before querying an agent. The information found herein is subject to change.

As far as author Amanda Hocking is concerned, I'm glad she found success in self-publishing. But I also read that she was turned down by every NY publishing house (though I don't know how true that is since none of them really take unagented material from aspiring authors). Anyway, as for the $2 million "deal" Axelrod got her, she was on her way to doing it by herself (if she hadn't already). I'm assuming she shopped her project around to lit agents, too befor going the self-publishing route. That assumption makes me think Axelrod isn't interested in her talent or ideas, only the $ she can make him. She doesn't need this guy at all to GIVE 15% of her earnings to. I don't know the whole story so whatever.

I'd be wary of assuming much about anything about Amanda Hocking. As you said, she was well on her way to getting a deal like the one she got herself, so I'm assuming she had a large number of high-profile agents she could have signed with, all equally eager for the $ she could make them. She's been very vocal about the fact that she prefers not having to focus on the business side of writing, leaving more time and energy for the creative aspects, so I would think she'd have every interest in finding the best business partner for her books as possible - and as such, her selection of Mr. Axelrod as her agent probably says a lot of credible things about him, as he surely had something that interested her in him above other agents.